On 5th July, Meta rolled out a new text-based platform, “Threads,” which received 5 million users in just an hour.
Threads is an app set to compete with Twitter and is in line with competitors, such as Donald Trump’s Truth Social and Bluesky, which provide an alternative digital space for conversations.
What’s Threads?
Threads is an app built by the Instagram team for sharing text-based content online. Threads does what Instagram does but on a whole new level.
It further expands the visual experience of Instagram to text, creating a creative space to express ideas.
It offers real-time updates and public conversations. It is a great platform for creators. Currently, work is underway to make Threads compatible with open, interoperable social networks.
On Threads, you can connect with friends and fellow creators who share your interests. This includes the people you already follow on Instagram.
You can even use the existing suite of safety and user controls present on Insta.
Character Limit of 500
Opening the Threads app, you will see buttons to “like,” “reply”, “repost,” or “quote” a “thread”. You will also see counters showing the number of replies and likes that a post has received.
Posts have a 500-character word limit, which is more than Twitter’s 280-character threshold. Posts on Threads can include text, links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes.
To keep you updated, the platform offers notifications in your feed that include threads posted by people you already follow and recommends content from new creators as well.
You can share your content from Threads on Instagram or share posts as a link on any other platform you like.
Difference between Threads & Twitter?
In many ways, Threads and Twitter have similarities as both are text-based platforms. Yet, there are subtle changes that we can see like the wording has been changed with retweets being called “reposts” and tweets called “threads.”
The character limit is almost double (500) for Threads compared to Twitter (280), and posts on Threads can include links, photos, and videos up to 5 minutes.
One drawback to Threads over Twitter is that Threads does not include any direct messaging feature for now.
Concerns Regarding Threads
With Threads, Meta has widened its pool of products and has gained more access to data raising concerns over data privacy. Although Threads offers the experience of integrating almost too well into existing products, data issues come with it, and so do concerns of safety over the internet.
Talking about creative conversations, we are excited to see Threads develop over time and the new functionality that it will introduce to the Internet.
